This track depicts the end of 'The Phoney War' and the cold harsh reality of a real war. For the outcome will leave Britain standing alone against the Nazi war machine. Not until 1941 will others join the British and Commonwealth countries against Hitler. Hitler's invasion against the Soviet Union and the Japanese attack on the United States will create new Allies, but until then Britain will stand alone, with the defeat of France a matter of weeks away.

Dunkirk was the French port where the British Expeditionary Force retreated, after the combined British and French armies had been outmanoeuvred by the Germans in Belgium. With the French army in retreat, the British Expeditionary Force headed towards the coast and Dunkirk.

'Operation Dynamo' was the code name for the evacuation of British and Allied troops from Dunkirk back to the safety of England. They expected to save at least 45,000 soldiers, but ended up saving over 300,000 troops, transporting them back to good old 'Blighty', and to fight another day. Not only was the Royal Navy and RAF involved but a flotilla of private ships, a combined effort that saved the day.

The track looks at the desperate times that the "Tommy" endured. Bad battle plans based on WW1 tactics, that were swept aside by a modern German army that had become rampant across Europe. It would take some luck and bravery to survive. Then the process of learning new modern tactics to combat the Nazi threat. The track symbolizes the change from the 'Phoney War' to a 'Real War,' and on the eve of Britain standing on its own, with the French surrender just a matter of days away, Operation Dynamo was a small victory in defeat.

Tommy sleeps wrapped in a Union Jack, on a beach.
And when he sleeps he dreams of coming back, to home sweet home.
But deep down he knows there ain't much chance of that, and that is that.
You've been told son, keep your head down low, and dodge the dancing flak.

Is this the shape, just another phoney war.
Oh what a shame, oh what a lovely war.

That's you and me out there on the chess board, looking like small wooden pawns.
We don't get a choice in the moves we make, we just get played and told.
We're all just small fish out of water, and we live our lives.
Hour by hour, night after night. Week in week out, year in year out.

Is this the shape, is this the shape of things to come.
Watching men suffering in silence,
day by day, day by day, day by day, day by day.
Is this the shape, not just a phoney war.
Oh what a shame, not such a lovely war.

To read reviews on the CD 'A Promise Of Peace' click the album sleeve. To access a sample from this track, and access other samples from the album, use the menu below. All samples are approximately 600k, and every attempt has been made to maintain the quality and speed of the sample.

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For those visitors that have entered to this site, directly to this page, we would like to inform you that this page is part of a series of pages, within a section that acts as a backdrop to 'The Puzzle' project. 'The Puzzle' is a musical project that looks at different events from the 20th-21st Century.

This section is part of the 'World War II' zone. 'A Promise Of Peace' tells the story, in chronological order, of World War II.

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